Smart mechanisms for the visual evaluation and control of self-motion

This paper is mainly concerned with the “measurement problem” of visual self-motion control and with the problem of transforming information picked up by a mobile visual sensor into forms useful to self-motion control. It is argued that the performatory part of all autonomous mobility consists of a heterarchy and hierarchy of control loops. The organism has smart mechanisms “tuned to” specific interactions with the environment and controlling the loops. Keeping a ship on course is a better metaphor for most of these continuous closed loop natural processes than “doing computations.”